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After GOP lawmaker ousted, candidates court Democrat-heavy district

MUSKOGEE — The ouster of Muskogee's Republican incumbent in the primary election could raise the odds for Democrats hoping to recapture a seat they once held for almost a century.

Republican Chris Sneed scored an upset victory over longtime incumbent state Rep. George Faught in the House District 14 primary runoff, and Sneed said he feels like he has enough momentum going into the Nov. 6 General Election to overcome voter registration statistics.

He now faces Democrat Jack Reavis, a high school history teacher and chair of the Muskogee County Democratic Party.

The district that covers much of the eastern Oklahoma city of Muskogee has more Democrats than Republicans, with the most recent data showing Democrats with a 3,117 vote advantage out of nearly 20,000 voters.

"In the primary, we had two tough opponents," said Sneed, who owns an insurance company. "We have our opponent now who is another tough opponent."

The winner will have to court both sides: Democrats and disaffected Republicans that ousted a lawmaker who voted against his party's tax hike proposal in March.

"The Republican Party would still like to keep this seat and get somebody that would be able to vote a straight party line," said Reavis. "Ultimately, I think it's going to matter who mobilizes their base effectively."

Through mid-August, the last time candidate campaign spending was reported, Sneed had a financial advantage. He had loaned more than $26,000 to his own campaign and raised about $5,000 from donors. Reavis had raised nearly $8,000 through mid-August.

Though House District 14 has a majority of Democrats, the area is conservative enough to have sent a Republican to the Oklahoma Capitol six times in a row. Faught was the first Republican since 1909 to represent that part of Muskogee County.

Before Faught's first victory in 2006, local Republicans struggled to overcome straight-party voting. It's a problem exacerbated by the fact that most voters there are Democrats, said Muskogee County Republican Party Chair Dan Chepkauskas.

"They don't necessarily look at the candidate, they just look at the party so that makes the race more problematic for Republicans," Chepkauskas said. "You have to get people to look past the party and at the candidates."

Democrats are eager to win back the seat, but a Democratic pick-up would be less of a vindication and more an example of the ebb and flow of politics, Reavis said.

He acknowledged Oklahoma's deep-red status on the political spectrum as one that extends to his hometown, despite the Democratic voter advantage that might otherwise benefit him. There is, however, an undercurrent running through it all that Reavis described as a "Woody Guthrie kind of populist."

"Pull yourself up by the bootstraps, help somebody who needs help and don't enable them," he said. "And as long as your freedom doesn't hurt me or my family, to each his own as long as it's lawful."

Aside from putting his education experience to work, Reavis said he would focus on health care and environmental issues. Sneed wants to focus on jobs, infrastructure, education and rural health care.

"I think Democrats and Republicans are tired of party politics and they're just looking for somebody who's going to be a positive change for the district. I don't have an agenda other than just working for the people," said Sneed.

Dale Denwalt has closely followed state policy and politics since his first internship as an Oklahoma Capitol reporter in 2006.
He graduated from Northeastern State University in his hometown of Tahlequah. Denwalt worked as a news reporter in...
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